Constructing the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London, 1850.

Constructing the Crystal Palace, London, 1850. Plate taken from the Illustrated London News (Vol 50/2 p 389), showing a view of construction work from the west. Designed by pioneering architect, engineer and gardener Joseph Paxton (1801-1865), the Crystal Palace was a prefabricated iron and glas structure built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The structure was dismantled and re-erected in Sydenham, South London, an area now known as Crystal Palace, and in 1936 was destroyed by fire.